


When Ash Isn't Home

by SouthyJr



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: (hopefully), Comedy, Fluff, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23603254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SouthyJr/pseuds/SouthyJr
Summary: Ever wondered what Ash's Pokémon might get up to in Pallet Town while Ash is away? Well, wonder no more. Here are some of the crazy shenanigans that they get involved in when not training. (I just feel sorry for the old Professor Oak!)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 48





	When Ash Isn't Home

“Okay, everyone!” Professor Samuel Oak called to the large collection of Pokémon gathered in front of him. “Ash will be living in Vermillion City and working as an assistant at a Laboratory there for the near future. He should be arriving here for some time off in a few days, but before then he had some friends he wanted you to meet!”

Tracey used the small pause in the professor’s speech to exit the lab, pushing a trolley filled with thirteen standard Pokéballs, and one strange-looking dark blue ball. Ash’s gathered Pokémon looked on in confusion, as Ash usually never caught so many new friends at once.

Tracey and Professor Oak took two Pokéballs each, leaving the rest on the trolley that was quickly moved over to the side. One by one, the balls were opened to reveal the creatures that had been inside them. First came a proud Squirtle, who’s first action upon leaving the ball was to put on his sunglasses. Shortly after him came a scarf-wearing Butterfree and a majestic Pidgeot, who both began to stretch their wings, repeatedly somersaulting in midair. The last one of this group of four to be revealed was a Primeape. Some of the surrounding Pokémon were caught off guard by how calm it looked, especially when compared to the normal disposition of the species.

Upon recognising the revealed Pokémon, Ash’s Kanto team rushed forward, eager to greet their old companions. Many of the others looked on in awe at the new arrivals, having heard many tales of the former team members and all they had achieved.

Out of the four, Squirtle received the least attention from the others, as it was no stranger to the Pokémon of the ranch. Despite not living there permanently, instead residing with Officer Jenny and the other Squirtle Squad members, he still had regular visits when off-duty. Meanwhile the other three had never actually lived on the ranch, and so received much more attention, resulting in a large crowd forming around them.

Many of the fighting types in the crowd, such as Infernape, Scraggy and Hawlucha were eager to find out what Primeape had learned from its years of dojo training. While most of them preferred their own styles to any formal style, they were all curious as to what the Pig Monkey Pokémon could do. Most of them requested a sparring session, and Primeape gladly accepted all the challenges.

All of Ash’s bird Pokémon flocked straight to Pidgeot as soon as they were revealed. Much like Primeape and the fighting types, many questions were asked and requests were made. However instead of asking to spar, most of the flying types wanted to hear stories of what leading a flock was like. The proud Pidgeot was more than happy to share.

Butterfree stayed towards the back, not being as comfortable with all of the attention when compared to the other, more boisterous Pokémon. It couldn’t escape notice entirely though. It was approached by Heracross and Leavanny, who were both more than happy to have another bug type among them. Bulbasaur also plodded over to Butterfree, the small plant using its vines to hug the Butterfly Pokémon before welcoming it back to the team, an act that managed to bring Butterfree to tears.

Once the commotion and greetings had quieted down, Oak picked up a single Pokéball and turned toward the crowd. “Now, as I’m sure you’ve all guessed, Ash has called back all the Pokémon that live away from this ranch,” the Professor started. “For some of you this will be a first time meeting, and for others this will be a reunion. As you might have guessed from the four that were just called, this will be done in region order. Now with that said, let’s get onto the next meeting, shall we?”

Following those words, Professor Oak opened the lone ball that he was holding, which happened to contain a young Lapras. While this did not cause as much of an uproar as the previous four, there were many cheers from the Kanto team at the sight of another returning teammate. The biggest reaction came from Snorlax who, in a rare display of wakefulness, charged towards Lapras. Once Snorlax had reached its target they let out a loud, excited cry before lifting the Transport Pokémon up in a hug, excited to see the other Orange Archipelago native. This had the unintended effect of knocking over many of the group, but upon seeing Snorlax show such affection, the large Pokémon was quickly forgiven.

After multiple unsuccessful attempts to pry Lapras from the grip of Snorlax, Tracey grabbed the next two Pokéballs from the trolley while the professor checked on the condition of the water type. He opened them without much fanfare to reveal a Goodra and a Greninja. While they weren’t known personally by many of the group, a large number of them let out a gasp at seeing Greninja. It was widely known among them that the frog had left in order to clear the remnants of malevolent energy within Kalos, and none of them had known that its job was already finished.

After the shock had passed, Greninja and Goodra were approached by Talonflame, Hawlucha and Noivern, all three of them excited to see their partners from Kalos. Goodra gave hugs to all of them, while Hawlucha shared a fistbump with Greninja, a common sign of affection between the two.

The Kalos group were given several minutes to catch up with each other and introduce the two newcomers to the rest of Ash’s team that all lived at the ranch. Once the large introductions for the Kalos group were over, and the excitement had dissipated a bit, Oak and Tracey collected four more Pokéballs. After taking two Pokéballs each, Professor Oak also picked up the strange blue-patterned ball, with only two remaining on the table.

Before opening the next set of Pokéballs, the old researcher called out to the collection of Pokémon once more. “Now, I know that these previous groups have been reintroductions for some of you, and that you have battled and travelled together in the past.”

“However,” Tracey continued, “None of you will have met these Pokémon before. This is the team that, along with Pikachu, helped Ash win the Alola League! So, please give them a warm welcome!”

The exclamation was followed by the professor and his assistant throwing up all 5 balls that they held between them. The first to materialise was the sleepy Rowlet, who hovered in the air for a few moments, with the intention to just land and have one of his regular naps. At least, that was until the Grass Quill Pokémon was sighted by Noctowl. After managing to grab Rowlet’s attention, Ash’s only shiny Pokémon led the smaller owl over to Torterra’s tree, where the pair quickly began to nap.

While that was happening, the rest of the Alolan team finished forming. Incineroar took the opportunity to show off by posing, trying to make a big impression on the team members that Ash had told them so much about. While Incineroar did this, Charizard, Sceptile and Infernape all took the time to size up the Heel Pokémon, trying to determine if the large tiger was a worthy rival. This wasn’t the only attention that Incineroar received however, as upon Hawlucha seeing the display, its attention was drawn towards the large dark type, always being able to recognise a fellow wrestler. Hawlucha took to the air, gliding over the crowd before landing in front of Incineroar, just in time for them to stop posing. The Heel looked down at the small, avian Luchador, seeing a potential companion within them. Incineroar followed the unspoken request, and joined the crowd next to Hawlucha.

The next member to receive attention was Lycanroc. The energetic canine was quick to start barking, tail wagging furiously behind it, all while its eyes darted around, looking at all its potential new friends to play with. Lycanroc’s childlike eagerness was returned by the likes of Glalie, Gible, Donphan and Totodile, all of them famous among the ranch Pokémon for the games they planned and played while not training. While some of the more stoic members of the team were slightly worried at the thought of the energetic group gaining a new member, the thought was soon forgotten when they saw just how happy the unique Lycanroc was, and how quickly they had been able to make friends.

The fourth Pokémon in this group was by far the largest of them all. Melmetal towered over a vast amount of the gathered creatures, and cast an imposing shadow that had some of the more softhearted team members, such as Torkoal, slightly intimidated. At least, until the giant began trying to talk to Bulbasaur, who had been wordlessly nominated as the first to approach. The Seed Pokémon was quickly lifted onto the shoulder of the steel type Pokémon, before Melmetal extended the offer to many of the other small Pokémon. Squirtle was the first to accept the offer, having recently finished greeting both new and old companions, before becoming curious about the tall Hex Nut Pokémon. With this encouragement, many others wanted to be given lifts, resulting in Melmetal having a small army sitting on its arms and shoulders.

The last creature from this group emerged from the strange blue-and-yellow ball, and upon forming, one would at first have difficulty figuring that it was even a Pokémon at all. At first, the crowd responded to Naganadel in a similar fashion to their first response to Melmetal, albeit with the intimidation being replaced by hesitant curiosity. And once again, they were quickly proven wrong. While Naganadel was at first confused at the large group before it, having not heard much about Ash’s previous teams, it started to relax upon seeing the familiar faces from Alola.

After also recognising the Pokémon Professor in addition to its teammates, the Ultra Beast became excited. It expressed its excitement to the whole group as it flew around them all in circles at high speed, all while letting out joyful cries. While all of Ash’s Pokémon were trained enough to follow the speed, many of them quickly became dizzy before Naganadel had finished. After a few dozen loops, the young Poison Pin Pokémon had its attention taken by Noivern, who was happy to have another young dragon on the ranch. The two of them then joined Rowlet and Noctowl upon the back of Torterra, although the dragons did not fall asleep, and were careful in order to avoid waking the slumbering owls.

Professor Oak took that as a sign that things had calmed down once more, both him and Tracey taking one Pokéball each off the trolley and leaving it empty. The professor clapped in order to get the attention of the crowd focused on himself, before talking to the crowd one final time. “These last two Pokémon are very recent additions to the team. Infact, one of them was caught merely two weeks ago!”

This surprised a lot of the gathered Pokémon, as it usually took a much longer time before any new team members were introduced to the Oak Ranch. The aging professor continued with his speech, “Now I’m sure many of you are curious as to why this is happening so soon. The reason for this is because since Ash will not be leaving Kanto for any long period of time for the foreseeable future, he wanted everyone to get along. Especially since he may end up calling some of you if he needs help with his field research!”

Tracey took over from there saying, “Now that we’ve said all the boring stuff, let’s make the last introductions for the day,” before he and Oak both threw the balls they were holding.

This time, the first to emerge was a smiling Dragonite. Upon reveal, its first action was to pick up the closest Pokémon and give them a hug. The ‘victims’ of this action were Scraggy, Corphish and Palpitoad, who all protested at first. After a few moments, they realised they weren’t being attacked and returned the hug, to the amusement of all the other gathered Pokémon, as well as both of the humans. Dragonite eventualy put them down and began to greet some of the others in the crowd. To the relief of most of them, no more large hugs were attempted.

The final Pokémon of the day was a mischievously grinning Gengar. The ghost stuck its tongue out, before leaping between the shadows of the group, trying to make a big impression on them. Once done, Gengar was approached by Glalie and Gliscor, both of whom had seen their potential, and they were able to successfully recruit the ghost into their team of pranksters. Many of them cringed at this development, particularly Infernape and Bayleef, two of the most common victims.

After the last two Pokémon had been accepted into the group, Tracey and the Professor quietly headed back into the lab, content with letting the Pokémon mingle amongst themselves. After shutting the door and greeting his Rotom assistant, Oak looked out the window, before letting out a breath. “I’m not sure what you think, Tracey, but I just think our jobs just got a lot harder.”

“Probably, but at least all the meetings went well! I’m not sure what we would have done if they didn’t,” the Pokémon watcher replied, before joining Oak at the window just in time to see Melmetal extending its amorphous arms to hug every Pokémon there that couldn’t fly. The grin sported by Dragonite was telling of just whose idea it was, although smirks from Swellow and Glalie suggested that they might have had a hand in it as well.

All thirty Tauros didn’t take kindly to this, and began to push out of the liquid metal arms around them. But they didn’t stop after escaping. Having decided that they’d been sitting still for long enough, they decided to charge around the entire area, resulting in the professor’s fences being broken again. Oak’s only response was a resigned “Oh dear…” before gathering the tools needed to fix the fence.

It was going to be an interesting few weeks after all.


End file.
